As I look around the blogosphere, and view memeorandum, it occurred to me that we may have hit and passed Peak Wingnut. Don’t get me wrong, this election is still not over and by no means in the bag, but as I read things, the hey day of modern wingnuttia may have passed.
Sure, there is still lots going on- the Obama smears have been fast and furious, and there are lots of current attempts to mainstream nonsense (a solid example would be Jonah’s market analysis), but it all seems so yesterday. These days, there seem to be more than enough outlets to rebut the bullshit, the media is tired of being treated like morons, and the Democrats seem for once ready and itching for a fight. But most of all, the attempts just seem so feeble. In the past few days we have seen Red State put a front page post up about Obama’s birth certificate and NRO’s Andy McCarthy tried to convince us that William Ayers ghost wrote Obama’s books, but for the most part, they gained no traction and were laughed off by everyone.
I was one of the early ones to snap out of things and come to my senses and Andrew Sullivan has all but tattooed Obamanation on his chest, but even more telling, folks like David Frum, Kathleen Parker, Chris Buckley, and Chris Hitchens have all jumped ship. Now granted, there are still some diehards- just today Mark Steyn and K-Lo were chastising David “Axis of Evil” Frum for insufficient fealty to the cause, but it really does feel like we have reached and surpassed Peak Wingnut. Nothing like two wars, an economic meltdown, and Sarah Palin to bring clarity to the debate. All that seems left are the really embattled dead-enders, and we know from WWII that some soldiers can go on fighting the same old battles forever.
The question now for historians and bloggers alike is to approximate the closest estimate of the date at which it peaked. So, the questions for you all:
Have we surpassed Peak Wingnut?
When did it happen?
What event most clearly demonstrates we have passed Peak Wingnut?
Or is this premise completely flawed, and wingnut is a renewable resource and will experience a dramatic surge on the first day of an Obama Presidency?
Discuss.
*** Update ***
Never mind, via the comments, I see I spoke too soon. Eager to spread a National Enquirer rumor that Obama had gay, anal, black on black pedophile sex as a ten year old (btw- the correct term is not “affair” but “molested”), Erick at Red State writes the following in yet another one of those special front page posts we have grown to love:
The National Enquirer now suggests Barack Obama had an underage, gay affair with a pedophile. Yup. That Frank Marshall Davis guy Barry says was his good friend? Turns out he was a perv of the first order and liked young boys.
This post is not intended to spread that rumor. Frankly, if Obama wins, we’ll have our hands full around here making sure folks don’t develop Obama Derangement Syndrome.
Not designed to spread the rumor? And develop Obama Derangement Syndrome? You don’t have it now?
Ignore all my questions from above- wingnut is a renewable resource. Peak Wingnut was the shortest lived “theory” ever. I eagerly await learning how this was all a joke (hahaha). And for the record, I really don’t remember a lot of liberals running around embracing the Palin/National Enquirer story. In fact, what I remember is certain folks, in the aftermath of the Edwards/Enquirer nonsense suddenly amazed that regarding Palin, the Enquirer was now no longer reliable. I avoided all of the Palin absurdities with regards to the Enquirer.
frank
Katrina
bud
Death, Taxes, and Wingnuttery. These three you can count on.
dmsilev
I refuse to believe in Peak Wingnut. I believe that an active program of exploration and drilling will provide a continuous supply of wingnut for decades to come. If we need to invade certain other countries with a wingnut surplus in order to ensure an adequate supply of wingnuts to meet domestic demand, so be it.
-dms
Dennis - SGMM
I wouldn’t count them out so soon. Should Obama be elected they will create a cottage industry of tying his every decision to some secret agenda involving Socialism, the Islamofascist hordes or black supremacy.
kommrade jakevich
I cannot begin to answer your questions until I scrub this mental image from my brain.
Bastard.
Jess
I would guess the Couric interview was the tipping point, even if the full effect wasn’t immediately apparent. I was thinking along the same lines today–that the pendulum has finally swung back and liberalism is no longer going to be a dirty word.
jp2
Not over yet…still peaking
RedState : Barack Had a Gay Relationship with an Older Male When he was a Boy
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/10/13/214414/07/809/629741
James
I think it was Malkin harrassing and stalking the family of Graeme Frost, looking back.
Xenos
Tragedy of the commons, where the commons is stupidity?
We are more likely to suffer from peak hydrogen.
/Ellison
EddieInCA
Couric Interview. (The first one).
That’s the day they jumped the shark.
The idea that "That Woman" could be VP became an instant joke.
ATinNM
When I was working on my house I removed some old linoleum. Under the linoleum was the front section of the Albuquerque Journal (IRRC) published February, 1944. At the back, in the Letters to the Editor section was a letter proclaiming Social Security needed to be privatized otherwise the nation would be destroyed.
Wingnuttia is forever.
SamFromUtah
@jp2: Not over yet…still peaking
Agreed. I think the shrillest will be shortly after the election, assuming Obama wins, with an aftershock on his swearing-in.
Like with peak oil, the wingnuttery will not be gone instantly but will slowly recede; I suspect that not having the U.S. government egging it on will let it dwindle.
I’m hoping that that half-billion dollar contract Rush signed ends up looking like the stupidest money ever spent, even to his employers as well as sane people.
Francis
I think it was the campaign "suspension" for the bail-out. It was so utterly ridiculous that even the worst of the water-carriers, like Buckley, just couldn’t keep going.
Eric U.
I figure it really was the beginning of the end when we went from the wingnuts cowering in fear from the jackbooted thugs and black helicopters, to Bush’s election, to the wingnuts cheering on the jackbooted thugs and black helicopters. I don’t care if the commandos driving down my block in black vans with heavily tinted windows are working for a Democratic administration or a Republican administration. I’m still putting nail strips in the road.
Although, more recently there is Bush pushing through the immigration bill, Katrina, and the 700 Billion bailout. People figured that if they were going to pay for big government, they should get it from people who cared about big government. This reduced the population of people that would nod in agreement when the wingnuts ranted to their friends at the bar.
Elvis Elvisberg
Maybe we’ve passed the peak.
But until the day that NR is either edited by some Larison or Bacevich type, or ceases publication, there’s a lot of work ahead for the reality-based community.
DonkeyKong
Look into the eyes of Sarah Palin, but not for very long, there burns the wingnuttia of a thousand million doughy pantloads.
neal peart
Katrina (although I was tempted to say Schiavo). Could be Plame, though.
Bitty
@jp2: Hoo-boy! Ride that crest!
It is, of course, impossible to have an "underage affair." The closest applicable term would be to be "statutorily raped."
And that’s just the first problem with that rant.
lost in GA
OT: but I can’t seem to access comments on my iPod touch when I read this blog. Is there a setting I’m missing? I’ve installed all of the updates. Kinda sucks not being able to follow the conversation.
whocoodanode
Great post. I nominate the wonderful period that began when John McCain suspended his campaign as the near-term game-changer.
The cultural news of McCain’s snubbing of Letterman, the bald grandstanding and upsetting negotiations were unexplainable gaffes that caused some kind of media whiplash vortex that sucked the life out of the news cycle. Threw a spanner in the works. Narratives collided and wreckage ensued.
Wingnuts were lost in the carnage, yes, but many more are just subdued while clearing their blog archives and caches to prepare for new principled, deeply-held talking points that contradict prior ones.
Conservatively Liberal
Yes, and as long as Obama leads and does a good job of it then their screeds won’t have any traction with the public other than to point out that no matter how good you are, some idiot will still hate you for all of the wrong reasons. After they distill themselves down to the scum under the shit at the bottom of the barrel of excrement that they have become, they will be relegated to the burning trash heap of history.
The Republican brand is toast if Obama wins and is perceived to be leading successfully in both the Democratic party and the nation.
Conservatively Liberal
Once again I have angered the BJ Mod Gawd with my raving lunacy. I will throw a sacrificial virgin in the volcano if deemed necessary to recover my post.
NonyNony
What we’re seeing now is kind of a slowdown in wingnut production due to a natural disaster – or a series of natural disasters. Between the economy, the wars, and McCain, the wingnut infrastructure took a severe beating over the last few years. The Palin-Couric interviews were the final straw – the infrastructure has been destroyed and our wingnut supplies are running low.
This could be a problem for sites that rely on consumption of massive amounts of wingnuttery for their survival (weep for the possible death of Sadly No! folks!), but they shouldn’t worry. An Obama presidency – as well as a severe inter-faction war within the GOP – will reinvigorate the wingnuts, unite them, and get them back on the same page. I predict wingnut supplies will be back up to 2007 levels before 2010 – 2012 at the absolute latest.
bluespapa
The fools ye shall always have with you.
There will be no end of wingnuttery. We can only dream.
bluespapa
p.s.
Let’s not forget a major tenet of wingnuttery. If Obama was molested by a pedophile, it must have been his fault.
Sapper
This is the moment when wingnuts stop being defensive of everything the government does (war, katrina domestic spying etc) and goes on the attack.
Start digging in.
Mino
Katrina comes high on the list, but I think the peak was Sarah Palin. After 8 years of Bush, they thought they could get the voters to swallow another of that ilk–a perfect combination of Bush’s ignorance and Cheyney’s malevolence.
FearItself
I think the peak moment came on Oct. 8 when McCain’s 90-second web ad dropped, linking Obama to Ayers and trying to make everyone freak out at the "connection." The fundamentally sane majority of American voters went, "Huh? WTF is he talking about?"
They wingnuts’ wet dream was that their reactionary panic-fetishes would hit the big time and resonate with the public, revealing the true conservative soul of America. Instead, when the door was opened between their Bizarro world and reality … crickets. It was exactly like Geraldo busting into Al Capone’s vault, except if Geraldo had knocked down the wall to find inside the rotting corpse of J Edgar Hoover in two wetsuits and a garter belt. People weren’t even outraged; they just wanted to look away.
That was the high water mark right there, because it was the simultaneous realization and destruction of the freaky freepers’ fever dreams. So sad.
Elvis Elvisberg
Here’s an interesting discussion about the next steps of wingnut weathervane David Brooks.
Comrade grumpy realist
Nah, stupidity we will always have with us. Wingnuts will be chastised for about 0.000001 nanosecond, then immediately sharpening their teeth for Ye Great Task of Impeaching Obama.
I’m almost to the point where I want to say, screw it, let’s have the Cultural Civil War all these idiots are so eager to have….let’s go ahead and partition the country along the lines of India/Pakistan. Give the wingnuts the South and that part in Kansas, we Moderate Rationalists will take the coasts and the original 13 colonies, and anyone else who wants to join us. And after the Moral Rapturists/theocrats/neocons get rid of all the "liberals, negroes, feminazis, queers and atheists", bloody good luck of them having a working economy….
Alan
Schiavo.
The measurement of the "Peak" is the turning point. After Schiavo, the Dems took congress.
kommrade jakevich
@jp2: Judas fuck. I think jp2 has more than adequately answered the question. A person who can formulate the concept (much less write it down for all the world to see) of a ten year old child having an "affair" with anyone has enough wingnut to propel a FTL drive.
Christ, these people are fucking psychopaths. That’s all there is to it. In a slightly less civilized society we’d be able to take turns putting the boot to that sick little fuck while the cops looked on and applauded.
En-fucking-croyable. Please you stupid sons of bitches, rally around that banner. I want to see you crushed and driven in to the deepest hole you can find.
Robyn
Never mind the obvious craziness of this allegation. But, let’s think about what they are saying; are victims of pedophiles engaged in affairs? Are rape victims trying to get over a bad date, bad sex?
What exactly is the point they are trying to make? Isn’t by default, an underaged person in an ‘affair’ with a pedofile a VICTIM? If this were true, are we supposed to blame the victim? How dare Obama & all other victims of pedophiles allow themselves to engage in underage gay affairs?! SHAME SHAME SHAME!
Are we in bizzaro world? Clearly these people know no true victims of pedophilia else they could ever never make such as HORRIBLE charge! Insanity!
Lizzy L
bluespapa at 25: If Obama was molested by a pedophile, it must have been his fault.
… Or possibly, through some intricate and stunning convolution of time and space which only the wingnuts understand, it was Bill Clinton’s fault.
r€nato
Dennis and likely others who got here first beat me to it.
John, imagine the Clinton years taken to another order of magnitude, because Obama really is pretty much squeaky-clean (and also because, you know, the only reason the Clinton witch-hunt didn’t succeed in getting that impeachment conviction is that they did not try hard enough).
Which means they will have to be that much more creative in coming with "reasons" why he should be impeached, convicted, and packed off to Gitmo.
I’m not engaging in hyperbole, either. You ain’t seen nothing yet, and then there’s the coming Great GOP Schism as the various Republican factions fight it out over who was at fault for the devastating results of the 2008 election.
Xenos
"Eighty per cent of air pollution comes from plants and trees."
r€nato
I hope the state of Illinois had the decency to charge him for the
rapeaffair kit.TheFountainHead
Wingnuttia is Cold Fusion, except without all the physics.
Ecks
Wingnuts were on a temporary binge of higher than baseline prominence due to having one of them unapologetically in the president’s seat, and with a fairly cowed media at bay. Conditions aren’t likely to be good for them to be this openly, unabashedly, and effectively obnoxious for a while.
That said, it’s possibly wise to bookmark this post for ironic citing back at John in, oh, a year and a half when they try to impeach Obama for lying when he said that he remembered this dude that he met at that party one time, when clearly he’d totally forgotten who he was and didn’t even know, like, his name, and was just totally making it up to be smooth (omigods! dishonesties in teh wite haus, nooooooooes!!!11!1!!!!eleven!).
steve
October 7th, 2008
‘You know, just because the thing I saw wasn’t there doesn’t mean there wasn’t something there that I didn’t see.’
http://althouse.blogspot.com/2008/10/obama-wore-earpiece-that-was-clearly.html
that was the tipping point. As noted here, you are done when people laugh at you, and this sentence is your defense.
Dan
Honestly, the redstate post is pretty clearly just to make the point that we all bought the Palin adultery thing because it was in the now suddenly 100% correct National Enquirer.
Comrade Darkness
The choice of terms is highly telling for the original author. That he actually managed to type that out as if, by some extreme force of personality on the part of the 10-year-old that the power relationship between participants could approach equality implies something rather, um, disturbing about the writer.
I’m guessing, sans NAMBLA membership proof of the author, that he is desperate to avoid having the reader sympathize with his subject. But, honestly, it implies they don’t see the scarring potential (a bigger political ding, I’d think), which is all creepy as hell.
Ick, ick, ick. What is this, Sparta all of a sudden?
r€nato
Well, look at the silver lining: should Erick Erickson decide he wants a career change, he clearly has a bright future as a Catholic priest.
Keith
I’m withholding judgement until Ted McGinley starts guest-blogging for RedState.
dorkboy
Ok, so I won’t answer the questions posed.
However, I was talking with my parents and wife tonight about this over dinner and I mentioned that I’m glad things are working out the way they have because it’s exposed the 10%, or whatever, of absolute nutjobs that are in the Republican party. To add to my point, my mother spoke about some good Republican friends of theirs that they golf with every Saturday since the dawn of time. These friends have told her that while they can’t vote for Obama they sure can’t vote for someone who calls him a terrorist, a Muslim, an Arab, picks a VP who is unqualified for dog catcher, or is absolutely clueless on the economy.
While your "theory" may not be completely proven, parts of it are valid. Specifically, to those true Republicans they finally can’t stand to see who hijacked their party and want none of it.
Dorkboy +3
jcricket
I think wingnuttia, like schadenfreude can never peak, it just asymptotically approaches a limit of 100% (i.e. all wingnut, all the time). I think Krugman, sponsored by Exxon, wrote something about this once.
Sure, some wingnuts (John Cole, Sullivan) break free, but they are replaced faster than you can say "conservativism can never fail" with another wingnut. They’re like Agent Smith in that fight scene with Neo in the Matrix. Of course a clone of a clone of a clone is always "damaged" – so they quality of wingnuttery has gone down quite a bit over the years.
In the next couple of years those posts from Powerline, Red State, Malkin, etc. will seem like Dostoevsky and Kafka compared to whatever we’re reading about Obama’s daughters having gay affairs with Chelsea Clinton and converting their college roomates to Islam.
Comrade Darkness
But, it does. It just happens to be called "oxygen".
You know what this Obama experience has demonstrated for me? It’s that Christianity truly would be a total lost mistake were I to strike my head and decide to go back. I left it when I went to college and never considered going back, and I mostly don’t even think about it. But watching the Christians maul one of their own, no less, for being just a tad different, gives me the full body shakes to even imagine being anywhere near a church congregation. They are merciless, and they don’t give a crap that they are, in fact they are cheering each other on. Night of the living dead’s got nothin’ on these guys for horror.
LiberalTarian
I got cornered by a self-proclaimed "Arch Conservative" at a wine tasting event once. He was going off about the Viet Nam war ferchrissakes. I was younger then, and stunned. I can fight off those guys better now, but ugh. It was my first taste of concentrated wingnut. That guy is still out there, getting behind whatever crazy theory crawls out next. I also met a young guy in DC at Blackie’s Steakhouse (yum) who is also a bona fide concentrated wingnut. There will never be a low tide for these folks, they just keep breeding.
I think maybe you mean, "peak tolerance of wingnuts by polite society at the turn of the 21st century." I agree that Schiavo was way up there; but the crap we’re seeing with Sarah Palin is coming in close. Plus, hard to tolerate them when their ideology is costing everyone their nest eggs.
jcricket
Anecdote for the day. My brother-in-law, who grew up in the deep south, and was a Republican through 2004 (although he voted for Kerry) has become a rabid Bush hater. So much so that he was prepared to vote Obama even before they nominated McCain.
McCain’s current behavior is so far out of bounds that it’s not even a question of "holding his nose" anymore. He sounds like he could be a blogger at DailyKos, for heaven’s sake.
Sure, the wingnut coalition of the willing (racists, sexists, anti-tax zealots, secessionists, isolationists, homophobes, jew-haters) can cobble together 20-30% and keep the GOP winning in some places highly populated with such nutballs.
But if they lose the 20% of people who split tickets, cross party lines, etc. (your basic Reagan democrat types) the GOP will end up in steep decline. Not just because of percentages, but also the money that the non-crazies will take away from the party, the future candidates who will not run GOP to avoid being tainted with the crazy brand, etc.
Basically, the GOP cannot survive too long on a steady diet of red meat. At least not at its current size/scope/influence.
SamFromUtah
Peak Wingnut was the shortest lived “theory” ever.
I think it may still be so, you did just speak too soon. It might peak again, but it’s due to ebb for awhile, because the wingnuts won’t be in charge.
I hope.
SamFromUtah
@LiberalTarian: I think maybe you mean, "peak tolerance of wingnuts by polite society at the turn of the 21st century."
Yes! Well put.
r€nato
indeed. Wingnuttery used to revolve around complicated conspiracy theories weaving together the UN, the New World Order, the Illuminati, black helicopters, the gold standard, fluoride in the water, the Bilderbergers, the Council on Foreign Relations, and so on.
While it certainly was tinfoil-hat territory (and I found it fascinating at the time), it at least demanded a certain amount of cognitive ability to read and understand how it was all inter-related.
Modern wingnuttery simply involves throwing at the wall whatever shit you happen to find, and seeing if any of it sticks*. It doesn’t even attempt to have any intellectual consistency.
*as well as random instances of stalking and playing at being an armchair photography/typography/handwriting/economics expert.
Brachiator
@whocoodanode:
Of course, McCain is going to appear on Letterman’s show on Thursday, and Letterman will probably be deferential to McCain and his POWness. Letterman won’t even ask the obvious: "Senator McCain, you and your GOP goons were accusing Obama of being a celebrity. So why are you bringing your tired ass to a TV show?"
In a similar way, wingnuttia can never peak, because it is founded in denial and illogic. It is one of the few perpetual nonsense machines in the known universe.
Nylund
Wingnuts are best on the attack. With a GOP controlled gov’t these last number of years, they’ve been playing defense, which just isn’t their strong suit.
They excel at baseless accusations which is great for smearing people, but is a horrible form of defense. You can’t smear your way out of a crashing stock market, Katrina, or a god-awful Couric interview.
Once the Dems take over in January, they will regroup and become the baseless smear merchants we all know and love from the Clinton days. They are like monkeys that throw their poop. They make a lot of poop. And they throw it all. And they hope it sticks.
Ella in NM
Hey! That Redstate guy has it completely wrong, the little fucker.
I read the article in the Enquirer myself. While I was waiting in a line that was way, way, way too long at Wal-mart. I read the magazines for free when it is my opinion that they don’t have enought check-out lines open–as retaliation.
Anyway, the article said that the guy who was a pedophile liked little GIRLS, not little boys! So there! Obama couldn’t have been his lover. At age 10.
Boy am I beginning to really hate my fellow man.
ThymeZone
Yes.
I know this because it happened to me, and anyone who tries to use information of that type against the vicitim is the lowest form of scum, is beneath even the contempt one would have for the perpetraror himself.
I am not one to shrink from words of rebuke, but I really have no words for the kind of person who would publish something like that. There just aren’t any words bad enough.
Pooh
Holy Fuck, did anyone else see David Frum on Maddow tonight?
What a motherfucking wanker.
stickler
Most recent high tide for Peak Wingnut was, indeed, the Schiavo batshittery. Everything since then has been the twitchings of a dying corpse (2006 being the death rattle).
The fact that they nominated McCain — who ran against the "mullahs of the Right" back in 2000 — is perfect evidence of their bankruptcy.
Erick Erickson has never been anything but a neo-Confederate racist hack. RedState reflects this; the most-often repeated word over there is "blam," fer cryin out loud.
And if Trevino is suddenly scuttling away from the McCain Trainwreck, well, he’s a day late and a dollar short.
Josh Huaco
Wingnuttery will never die, it has always been with us, from back in the days when the ofays buried their Bibles in their backyards because they thought Thomas Jefferson was going to outlaw scripture if elected president.
But I think 2005 (Social Security privatization, Schiavo, Katrina) was the beginning of the end of its current, post-60s manifestation.
SamFromUtah
@Nylund: With a GOP controlled gov’t these last number of years, they’ve been playing defense, which just isn’t their strong suit.
I think they were still on the offense – their focus just shifted from crying about not being in power to eliminationist fantasies.
Billy K
Peak Wingnut? Hardly. Just wait – the shit they pull on President Obama is gonna make the Clinton years look like whoopie cushion and squirting flower level.
LiberalTarian
So, I looked up Frank Marshall Davis. Looks like the wingnuts had it in for him FOREVER. (A) he was a communist, (B) he was a poet, (C) he was black. QED.*
I hope Obama sues the National Enquirer–its about time these kind of stories hurt the people who tell them.
*Tongue in cheek re proof, but c’mon. This is red meat for these people. Eerily enough, I had just looked through the lynching photos at Without Sanctuary, and yes, when Frank Marshall Davis was 5, some of his classmates tried to lynch him. Fucked up stuff.
Bill Arnold
I don’t think Wingnuttiness has peaked, however, the tools to fight it in the left-of-wingnuttia have improved a lot since the 90s. The foremost tool is mockery. Daily Show, Email, blogs, YouTube, etc. Communication, rapid response including debunkings, etc, have been widely adopted by the left, and they help.
Ecks
So you’re saying the GOP has had too rich a diet the last few years and now has sclerosis and heart attacks.
Sounds about right :)
ThymeZone
But anyway, the question is not when did wignuttia run out of wingnuttiness. That is not going to happen.
The question is, when does the rest of the world stop giving any credence to wingnuttia? Or has it already?
I think that the tipping point, really, was Teri Schiavo. Since then, there has been a steady decline of regard for the wingnutty, which continues today.
The result is that the smear McCain tried in this year’s campaign has fallen completely flat. I think we can remember a time when it might have worked. The thing has tipped, but that isn’t going to stop the stupids from continuing to try and push stupid on the rest of us.
Comrade Nixon Hailfire Palin
Close, but I’m going with Tina Fey.
dmsilev
@Ella in NM:
You underestimate them. I give it two days before we get:
-dms
jrg
Wingnuts are out of line. Somebody stole my Obama yard sign. It’s been up for a day. I spent the whole day yesterday working on my yard so that I could put up the sign (I also worked on my neighbor’s yard, as a favor… he’s trying to sell the house but he’s living out of town).
This pisses me off. I cannot figure out if I should put up another Obama sign with a webcam facing my yard and try to catch the assholes, put up a fake yard sign that says "Yard Sign Stealing Pharisees for McSame/Caribou Barbie", or both.
Brian J
I’m simply baffled at why we are supposed to talk about this. I somehow doubt this is true, but let’s suppose it is. Should we feel sympathy for Obama? I don’t think Red State was pushing that angle. What are we going to hope for here? Vigilante justice against Obama’s alleged pedophile friend? It only makes sense to want for people to inquire about this time in Obama’s past, should it have happened, if it reflects poorly on his character. If he had maintained an active relationship with this man as an adult when he knew sick stuff was happening, it would be one thing, but that’s not what the post suggests. Should it have occured, it doesn’t reflect poorly on Obama. It means we should feel an enormous level of pity for him and disgust at what he went through.
Josh Huaco
I don’t know if it’s been referenced on this site before, but Richard Hofstadter’s "The Paranoid Style in American Politics" is a good introduction to Wingnuttery in America.
Also, I forgot to mention in my last comment that when driving on a rural Texas highway yesterday I passed an Adopt-a-Highway sign that said the particular stretch of road was sponsored by the local chapter of the John Birch Society. So, alas, Wingnuttery, like the poor, will always be with us.
Comrade Nixon Hailfire Palin
The Enquirer is ANWR for Peak Wingnut. Drill, baby, drill!
Jon H
"Of course, McCain is going to appear on Letterman’s show on Thursday, and Letterman will probably be deferential to McCain and his POWness. "
I don’t think it’ll matter. The damage is done, Letterman intensified the perception that McCain’s urgent campaign suspension was panic-driven bullshit.
Going on this week won’t – can’t – unshit that bed, any more than Palin can salvage her credibility by going on SNL.
SamFromUtah
@jrg:
Clearly, you also need a shit moat.
nwithers
Wingnuttia is a resource of infinite capacity and will never peak. If somebody figures out how to convert wingnuttia to a more useful form of energy he or she will simultaneously win the physics, chemistry, economics and peace noble prizes and be hailed as "the savior of all mankind"
Spaceships will then run on the wingnuttia put forward by cloned hordes of Michelle Malkin, long after our sun has burnt out.
[snark off] (and also needing a shower after coming up with that last mental image)
Josh Huaco
@dmsilev:
And someone will come forward with details about the Obamasnake*’s "distinguishing characteristics."
* – I imagine since much of the animus towards Obama is fueled by deep-seated notions of inadequacy as well as feeling threatened by the thought of a big black cock being in the White House we should come up with an Obama version of "the Clenis."
Jon H
" I cannot figure out if I should put up another Obama sign with a webcam facing my yard and try to catch the assholes,"
Get one of those laptop theft alarm gadgets, that goes off if the laptop moves. Hook it to the sign.
Alternately, if you have the cash, I think Cabela’s sells motion-sensitive infrared digital cameras intended to determine the presence of game near a potential hunting spot.
A Squirrel
This is, I think, a period of entropy.
First, the Obama (if he wins) will have to manage not to totally screw the pooch. Then the wingnutty Repubs will have to be "crowded out" by sane ones (a sane republican party is a good thing!)
It remains to be seen if the Overton window will swing, at least somewhat, to the left. At that point, the Malkinites (who will always exist) will have all the cache of an Abby Hoffman or a Eugene Debbs.
Maybe then John will get a Wikipedia entry for coining the phrase "peak wingnutt".
jbarntt
Have we surpassed Peak Wingnut?
Temporarily at least, but these things have cycles. A bad year for Republicans doesn’t mean the bad news will last forever. The Democrats might be in for the same thing that caused the current problem for Republicans, i.e., total control of government and an orgy of excess.
When did it happen?
2001-2007
What event most clearly demonstrates we have passed Peak Wingnut?
The likleyhood Obama will be the next prez ?
Or is this premise completely flawed, and wingnut is a renewable resource and will experience a dramatic surge on the first day of an Obama Presidency?
Conservatism will not make a resurgence that quickly, but ultimately it will. It might look different than it does now, but it will be back.
JGabriel
Josh Huaco:
Obasm?
.
Michelle
John, have you met
SamFromUtah
@Josh Huaco: we should come up with an Obama version of "the Clenis."
The Baracock?
DonnaInMichigan
22 days left to the election
2 days left for the final debate.
3 months until the inauguration of our next president (Obama)
According to Fivethirtyeight.com…10/13/08
Electoral Vote:
359.8 Obama
178.2 McCain
Win Percentage:
94.9 Obama
5.1 McCain
Popular Vote:
52.1 Obama
46.1 McCain
Now certainly something HUGE could happen to change these projections over the next 22 days. But, short of a Terrorist Attack on the U.S.A., I don’t believe that anything McCain can pull out of his hat, at this stage is going to really change the dynamics of this election.
I also, don’t believe that this debate coming up on Wednesday will change anything either. It will be the same canned answers, from the same canned questions, on both sides.
I’m waiting for that half hour buy time that Obama has coming (I think on the 25th? 29th? of October). I believe he is going to speak directly to the American people, and he is going to look very presidential doing it. I am sure that McCain is seeing RED over this.
McCains only hope, god help us, if there is a terrorist attack on the U.S. However, I don’t even know, with his erratic behavior over the last couple of weeks, if anyone would feel safer with him in office. And if that doesn’t scare you, what if something happens within months of McCain taking the oath of office…we end up with Palin for President.
That thought alone gives me nightmares!
Comrade Stuck
Peak Wingnut! That was good for a belly laugh. Wingnuts are an essential part of our ecosystem and therefore necessary for the proper functioning of the political system. How else would we know where the red line of stupid is. It is the basepoint of every bad idea in the universe and they show us where it is each and every day, so as we know to do something else.
However, when elected they tend to shit in our living room, and this is mostly our own fault and must therefore be avoided with vigor.
Comrade Darkness
Aren’t we all counting on that? Like Jan 21, all of a sudden the constitution will mean something to the 28%ers again. Gasp! The government, it’s spying on us! It’s holding people indefinitely without trial! It’s allowed a runaway unitary executive to overreach! Well, no shit, Sherlock.
Real conservatism provides a good balance. If we got that back, that’d be great. There’s not been even a hint of it the last 8 years, so it’s most likely extinct.
–Did I say 8? I meant 30 years.
SamFromUtah
@DonnaInMichigan: McCains only hope, god help us, if there is a terrorist attack on the U.S.
I don’t think that would be any kind of guarantee to help McCain. Nor would an insane response to it, like cancelled elections.
LA Confidential Pantload
Wasn’t Red State the site that was all up in arms about "blogger civility" and such bullshit? Didn’t they ban people for what they considered foul language? My, how things change.
Conservatively Liberal
Improved. ;)
gbear
Wingnuts will never be gone and once Obama wins the hardcore wingnuts will become completely toxic and unhinged. They’ll be screaming for impeachment for the next eight years.
I think we may have reached peak wingnut welfare though. The think tanks and phony charitable organizations will slowly lose influence and funding and close up shop. Hope so anyway. Guys like Virgin Ben who’ve been living high on wingnut welfare will be out on the street handing out leaflets. (I wish to FSM that it would happen to Doughy Pantload but unfortunately he’s protected by mom).
Zuzu's Petals
As at least one of the more sensible commenters over there tried to point out, not even the NE went that far…they just said the guy was a "perv" who wrote about/therefore admitted to seducing a thirteen year-old girl, voyeurism, exhibitionism, bisexuality, rape and sadomasochism. Nothing about seducing little boys.
Not that Erick wanted to spread a rumor or anything.
Splitting Image
I’m going to cast another vote for Schiavo, but don’t overlook the theory that Iraq’s weapons were moved to Syria.
Keep in mind that Peak Wingnut doesn’t mean the end of wingnut. Only that the growth of wingnut is stopped, and even though it still seems to be healthy and robust, it is definitely on the decline.
Also keep in mind that the Democrats were not deterred by their defeat in 1980. They made their excuses (poor candidate, divided party, John Anderson) and regrouped to try again. It was the 1984 election that turned them into the craven little cowards they later became.
By the same token, I agree with everyone who says this year’s blowout won’t be the end of the Republicans. The 2012 blowout will be. Assuming they do "regroup to try again".
dmsilev
@A Squirrel:
That phrase showed up in this Sadly No! post from May. Their list of proposed new wingnut blogger names is great.
-dms
LiberalTarian
@SamFromUtah
Oh Sam, Sam … now Hustler is going to have to pair up Baracock with Nailin’ Paylin. Sigh.
Hope they have a good director. ;)
cain
@jrg:
It’s very simple, you cover it with poison ivy or poison oak. If they touch it, they’ll have some nice skin rashes that will take them off the streets for awhile. They won’t dare try to sue you because it’s obvious that they were on your property without permission.
If you can’t cover that with that, find some other devious method. Fight peak wingnuttia!
cain
jcricket
Yes, wingnuts, in that way, are like old black men from the south. Too much red meat, biscuits, gravy and fried chicken (metaphorically speaking) and now it’s all hardening of the arteries, congestive heart (party) failure, etc.
Oh the irony :-)
Honestly, I think they caught the ebola from Malkin, Limbaugh, etc. One can only hope there’s no vaccine.
John Cole
@dmsilev: I can not take credit for Peak Wingnut, but I can lay hold to the claim that “wingnuttia” is mine.
I used it as far back as the Schiavo affair in 2005.
Rex
Post of the month. Brilliant.
Soylent Green
Mudflats has a great quote from Tina Fey:
Montysano (All Hail Marx & Lennon)
@DonnaInMichigan:
In an earlier thread, commenter d mason had meandered over to Red State, where a commenter there guessed that the GOP’s only chance would be
The comment is still there; d mason took umbrage and got banned. So yeah, I think we’re past peak (I think Katrina did it), but the back side of the curve is still pretty ugly.
On a positive note: BO mentioned McCain’s name in his speech today. Boos erupted. BO said "No, no. We don’t need that. What we need to do is vote." Then he moved on. It was beautiful. It was class incarnate. It was instant, reflexive leadership, and it made my day.
ThymeZone
As much as I don’t agree with David Frum on almost anything, I am listening to him on Maddow and …. I think he is trying to make a couple of valid points.
For example, the candidate is in a bowl with thousands of people and does not necessarily hear what the microphones hear. Absolutely true. Nor does the audience necessarily hear what the speaker is doing (see: Dean Scream).
Overall, Maddow wins the exchange, but Frum appeared to me to be trying to find an area where agreement was possible.
That doesn’t make me like him, but I don’t think that he is being a wanker … here.
gbear
When you get a new sign, also get a bottle of the hottest hot cooking oil that you can find and paint a coating of it on your sign. There’s a good chance that he’ll either rub his eyes or touch his mouth (or stick his finger up his nose) sometime after the theft. You won’t catch the guy, but you’ll make him pay.
Don’t put up any kind of sign condemning the thief. It’s like putting up a sign that says both "get off my lawn’ and ‘kick me hard’.
A Squirrel
@dmsilev:
Wow, I actually remember that Sadly post, but not the phrase.
You’ve got a mind like a steel trap. I hate steel traps.
jbarntt
Real conservatism provides a good balance. If we got that back, that’d be great. There’s not been even a hint of it the last 8 years, so it’s most likely extinct.
—Did I say 8? I meant 30 years.
Would be interested in what you mean by "real conservatism".
flyerhawk
Reading the comments over at RedState is absolutely hilarious.
One commenter said he believed, at least until very recently, that he believe McCain would win at least 40 states.
Many of them firmly believe all the polls are being run by lefties and are false.
I remember being in denial about the polls in 2004. Back then I was rationalizing that Kerry’s supporters were more likely to not have home phones.
Didn’t really work out that way. But it was a better rationalization that ALL the polls are in the bag for Obama including since hard core bastions of liberalism as Fox news and the Wall Street Journal.
ThymeZone
Heh. It’s worse than that. Yesterday, McCain himself said he was "six points behind." Which probably means, nine, or ten.
And we can be sure that he would not be saying that if his own internal polling were not telling him that.
So that means, even McCain’s own internal pollsters are in the tank for Obama. Ouch.
kommrade jakevich
@Brian J: We as non-deranged human beings feel sympathy. RedState denizens clearly lack the gene that causes normal people to die a little inside when they hear about children being abused.
I suspect this waste of skin is operating on the fucked up notion that being raped as a child by someone of the same sex makes you gay and therefore evil, therefore it was consensual, therefore who cares, therefore let’s see how we can make this into a political bludgeon, therefore ???, therefore profit!*
Other people have noted there’s no mention in the NE article of Obama being molested – sorry, having an affair – at the age of 10.** The sick bastard made that up on his own. I know it’s a free county and all but if my mind worked that way I’d head over to the state prison and demand to be locked up.
As I said, I really hope they make "10 year olds having consensual sex!" their newest rallying cry. The resulting shit storm would bury them.
*Also, "See! This is why we can’t allow gay people near children. They’ll rape – er – have affairs with them!" Evil fucker.
**I suppose he could also be working the stereotype of sexually precocious African-Americans, but who gives fuck, really?
Comrade Tax Analyst
Uh…I’m surprised no one mentioned one of the sick-assed underlying reasons for Erprick ErPrickson to post such a sleazy, wretched, slime-filled allegation. To some folks…probably a fair portion of their ‘red-meat’ coterie… a man who has been sexually abused is damaged and possibly no longer a "real man". This sorry creep is low here, real low, and the sad-assed way he says, "I’m not trying to start a rumor here", when that is EXACTLY what he is trying to do really pisses me off. The whole intent is to make Obama somehow seem less whole…less of a man, thus less steady and finally, less "Presidential". Yes, this is nonsense, and I don’t think it will hold water with much of anybody, but I think that’s where they are going with this, and you can be sure plenty of people will hear it, one way or the other…kinda like the way we heard it. I hate even discussing it, because that’s part of what they want…laying this piece of pig-shit slime out there in the hopes it has some effect on how Obama is perceived. Yet most of us feel strongly that it needs to be condemned, so we end up talking about it.
Personally, I think it reflects directly upon the foul piece of fetid smegma known as "Erickson".
What I really hate is that it makes me wish someone would just completely and thoroughly kick that slimey little piece of ass-wipe’s butt and then stick it out on the corner with a "for rent" sign on it. I’d just as soon not have that type of negativity floating through my head, thank you.
JasonF
I’ve been waiting for wingnuttery to peak for 15 years. Whether Republicans are in power or out of power, whether times are good or times are bad, wingnuttery persists. I mean, back in the early days of the Clinton presidency, we had a sitting Congressman shooting produce in his back yard in order to "prove" that the president of the United States murdered one of his friends. We had talk show hosts openly advocating violent action against the government. Fast forward to this decade and you get the Brooks Brothers Riot, the coordinated mockery of anyone who thought maybe an invasion of Iraq wasn’t the hottest idea, and the aforementioned Terri Schiavo debacle.
Basically, wingnuttery is eternal. If — as seems likely — Senator Obama wins, do you really expect the Corner to close up shop, or to post about legitimate policy disagreements with the administration? Of course not. They’ll just rewind the tape to 1993 and trot out the same sort of insane blather they spouted against the Clintons.
On the unrelated topic of Senator McCain going on Letterman this Thursday, I am praying that on Thursday afternoon, about 2 or 3 hours before taping, Dave calls the McCain campaign and says "Sorry, we’re cancelling tonight’s show so I can fly down to Washington." And then has Olbermann as his guest.
r€nato
that is a GREAT idea, along the lines of what I was trying to think of.
Mix the cooking oil or tabasco or whatever with vaseline so it doesn’t dry out between application and expropriation ;-)
gbear
The bumper sticker of 2009 is going to be
‘NOW YOU KNOW HOW WE FELT FOR THE LAST 8 YEARS’
Maybe with ‘SUCK IT UP, LOSER’ tagged on just for the fun of it.
ThymeZone
Sorry, but the booby-trapped sign is as likely to bring grief to a kid, or an animal, as it is to a thief.
Not a good idea.
r€nato
They are about to find out that the American electorate has a distinct liberal bias.
BombIranForChrist
I think wingnuttia peaked with Bush’s re-election.
Soon after, they hit the Schiavo matter in full stride, thinking they had finally reached the promised land, and were somewhat surprised, I think, to hear that a majority of people thought that the government was interfering too much in the details of a family tragedy.
This started the downward trajectory and then Katrina happened. The importance of Katrina is not that Americans finally realized Bush was an idiot. The importance of Katrina lies in the media realizing that they could boost their ratings by pummeling the Bush administration, rather than sitting subserviently in his lap. This is when the worm turned with the media, and therefore with public opinion.
Still, even though Katrina was the significant setback for the Bushies, the decline had already started with the Schiavo affair.
r€nato
that would only hold water if, you know, Obama turned out to be a sucky president. I doubt that’s going to happen; for instance, he has intelligence and education going for him. We’ve found out first-hand what happens when you hand over the country to a dry drunk who basically would have been expelled from college had he not been a Bush.
gbear
It doesn’t ever really dry out (at least not up here in MN). If it’s oil based, there will always be a film of it on the sign.
It works on squirrels. I painted the cooking oil on my wood feeders, and threw some in with the birdfood for good measure (You damned squirrels get off my feeder!). Birds don’t have tastebuds so they don’t taste ‘hot’.
edit:
Yea, you’re right about that.
DougJ
Have we surpassed Peak Wingnut?
Yes.
When did it happen?
Around the time of the Harriet Miers fiasco.
What event most clearly demonstrates we have passed Peak Wingnut?
Powerline’s skeptical reaction to the selection of Sarah Palin.
Or is this premise completely flawed, and wingnut is a renewable resource and will experience a dramatic surge on the first day of an Obama Presidency?
Although the premise it not flawed, it remains to be seen how much the wingnuts can crank it up during an Obama presidency.
charlotte
In terms of metaphor, I prefer Journey to the Center of the Earth myself. (The Mole People comes to mind also.) Peak Wingnut sounds like a delicious ice cream though. Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.
That old scoldy dude, what’s his name, in the Minneapolis airport men’s room, you know the guy. His wide stance explanation — that was a seminal moment in the annals of enough is enough. Frist’s diagnosis of Schiavo was an Easter classic. Palin’s ludicrous story involving leaking amniotic fluids and endless travel another such. And then there’s Putin’s rearing head–iconic idiocy.
Wingnuttery will evolve — much as they pretend to hate Darwin, it’s all about survival of the slickest, the richest, the locker room winners.
TenguPhule
It’s rumored that Erick molests little girls and goats.
Not that I’m trying to spread a rumor…just saying.
:P
DougJ
I tend to think that wingnuttia is better viewed as a movement or genre like disco or hippieism or romanticism. In its heyday, wingnuttia ruled all of our discourse. Tom Friedman was telling the Iraqi people to "Suck. On. This.", Andrew Sullivan was ranting about "Fifth Columnists", the entire cast of Meet The Press was lauding George Bush as a great leader, the same that the Stones once did disco songs, frat kids wore beads, and otherwise normal European teen-agers wrote each other letters quoting Goethe.
Now, wingnuttia is just a fringe movement. Soon it will be like polyester and white-fros. There will be some kind of resurgence under Obama and wingnut expressions will show up in Quentin Tarantino movies, but wingnuttia will never be mainstream again.
Ed Marshall
I guess that redstate thing was supposed to be a "joke".
I know they think that "American Carrol" thing is supposed to be a laff riot and all that, but is there a certain point where I can start looking real suspiciously at their humor and think they are sort of sub-human scum, that probably need vaporization rather than education?
raft
there are two ways we can think about Peak Wingnut. If we’re talking about the objective level of batshit insane wingnuttery, then there are no doubt extraordinary heights of Wingnut yet to be reached. Stuff that’s gonna make Clinton running Vince Foster over with a train look like Socratic dialectic by comparison. But if we measure Wingnut over the whole population the Age of Wingnut has, I think, passed. The days when these people were literally controlling the country are over for good.
So the wingnuts are only going to get more insane from here on out; people always become more unhinged when they lose power. We’ll need to prepare for their onslaught. The difference is now they’ll be shrieking their wingnuttery from the fringes of decent society, like those guys with the end-of-the-world signs, and not from the halls of the White House.
Unified Theory of Peak Wingnut:
1) When did it happen? –Sarah Palin.
2) What event most clearly demonstrates we have passed Peak Wingnut? –The election of Barack Hussein Obama as President of the United States.
3) Will Wingnut experience a dramatic surge on the first day on an Obama Presidency?–Yes. And we won’t give a shit because they aren’t running the country anymore.
Zuzu's Petals
Slightly OT, but Palin in print – even with the help of friendly editing – is just about as hilariously incoherent as she is out loud:
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
bago
In addition to hot sauce try Bittrex. Often sold as an animal repellent. The bitterest substance on earth. Tastes nasty for like 15 minutes.
eyeball
I’d call this Peak Wingnut.
I agree with the concept, actually.
What kind of derangement-syndromed mind would fish the web for insane shit like this … ? So this is rock bottom because of its mix of pointless time wasting on google, its stink of flop sweat, its giant clown shoes of unseriousness, and its bizarre partisan worthlessness.
charlotte
DougJ (122)–Absolutely brilliant. Thank you!
Ecks
Naw. Hook one of those up to a taser that’s hooked up to the metal rods of the sign… tee hee :D
Conservatively Liberal
Get a long brown (or Christmas type, green) light duty extension cord, a non-grounded light duty 120 volt male replacement lamp plug (brown) and some scrap wire. Strip the covering off of two pieces of scrap wire, both of them a few inches short of the sign post and leaving six inches of insulation on each of them. Tack the bare wires down (staple gun works fine!) each side of the sign post (with the insulated ends above the level the sign post will be buried), one wire positioned 180 from the other. Connect the two wires to the lamp plug and then go out and plant the sign. After the sun sets, run the extension cord out to the sign and plug everything in, hiding the wire and plugs in the grass or pile dirt around the pole base if it is in a front garden or the like.
I guarantee the jerk will get the shock of a lifetime when they grab your sign. So will any dog that dares to piss on it. If you had an old transformer and some capacitors around, I could tell you how to really surprise the fucker. It would be non-lethal, but it would knock them on their ass but good. ;)
You don’t fuck with an electricians property.
The Raven
The extremism in an indication that the movement’s leaders know it’s on its last legs. That puts it, probably, back to the Palin nomination, or perhaps the DNC nomination of Obama. The radicals are going to fight all the way down, though, and some will keep on yammering, just like the old Stalinists. But, unless they successfully pull off a Presidential electoral victory or an actual coup, they’re through as a real power in US politics for a generation, and they know it.
tas
We all know what comes next, since the natural trajectory of wingnuts is to penetrate even lower then where their last faux-scandal went.
So Obama got molested… And Obama was 8 when Ayers was in the Weather Underground… In a couple days, I fully expect the wingnuts to have a new "story" about Ayers pumping Obama’s boy ass while he was making bombs.
Continuum
Everyday I read the blogs and think what will the neocons make up next. And, everyday there is yet another slimejob. However, I think at this stage, most people are just thinking that the neocon Republicans are a joke. Most Americans realize that the neocons are now on live support and gasping their last breaths. These slanders against Obama and the Dems are just the proof of the Republicans experiencing their own "End Times".
rea
It rather amazes me that they can get from the facts–some acquaintance of Obama’s grandfather apparently molested a 13-year-old girl many years ago–to the conclusion–Obama must have been having regular consensual gay sex with this guy when he was 10–without ever touching ground on any evidence in between . . .
neddie jingo
I too got a little umbrage-y, but tried to keep it "respectful," in the hopes of actually penetrating the Wingnut fog. (Surprisingly, not swearing sometimes works.) As of now, my first sally still stands, but when I tried to reply, my account had been banned. Took out another ID (I was pissed off enough to bother), wrote something rather more scathing (but still "respectful"). That comment lasted just long enough for me to reread it and reload the page. Perhaps fifteen seconds.
Not really much of a testament to the Marketplace of Ideas, that bunch.
Peak Wingnut? Not in our lifetimes, folks.
Speedy
As long as there are intellectual cripples to swallow the raw , steaming sewage that the denizens of Wingnutia shovel , we will never be rid of them. I fully expect them to plumb the ethical dumpsters to new depths in the months to come.
blogenfreude
It will probably never run out and, if it does, we will need to develop alternatives sources of wingnut. There might even be some in ANWR. As a lefty blogger, I say that we can and will find enough wingnut to keep our blogs fully stocked.
Gus
The nuts will always be with us, I just want them pushed back to the fringe like they were pre-Goldwater. Birchers are now the bulk of the Republican party. I’d just like to see Rockefeller Republicans dominate the party again.
comrade pseudonymous in nc
I don’t think that Wingnut is a renewable resource, but I do think that it’s one that will likely become a niche commodity. People don’t burn whale oil that much these days, though I suspect a few wingnuts might, just because they think it pisses off hippie pinko liberals.
bryan
"I believe that an active program of exploration and drilling will provide a continuous supply of wingnut for decades to come. "
drill them here, drill them now, and drill them hard.
Barrayaran
Um, "memoranda".
Sorry.
ronathan richardson
"Peak Wingnut" now gets over 6,500 hits on google. It doesn’t appear to have existed as a term before this blog post.
Masshole
Terri Schiavo!